Data released by New Democrats shows that the Internet now rivals radio as the main source of news for Independent, swing, and battleground state voters.
One in ten of these voters say the Internet is their primary source of news. However, five times as many get their news from TV, which remains the dominant news medium for voters (see table in the report).These findings are part of a NDN memo on media habits of voters, the third in a series of memos based on polling by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates.
It is interesting that email is not ranked. Older Pew polls suggested that a majority of people also exchange some news via email around major stories (assume election is major story). It is also misses some of the work Valdis Krebs is doing around the value of conversations (peer-to-peer). However the memo is worth a read and a strong call to organizations to focus on Internet strategy to move messages to audiences.
I would ask a few more questions ..how are the trends breaking (increasing or decreasing use of Internet..radio, how does it compare to Pew results (voters vs. public) and what percentages are being spent on developing messages and distributing messages respective to importance of the medium. Are groups and campaigns spending at least 10% of the communications budget on radio and Internet strategies? Finally, I would ask about the power of the mediums...if my message dominates the radio so what...there are no links to additional information, action and organizing tools but on the Internet I have more of an opportunity to engage the target audience.
The related strategy memo is more about message strategy not campaign or distribution strategy. It is still a good read.
